Nightmare of the Future
by The Green Sword
Summary: One decision can change a life forever, but how exactly does it change? Please R/R and tell me if I should do more.


Disclaimer: I own nothing. Please R/R!  
  
Nightmare of the Future  
  
Chapter One: Katie Bell  
  
A woman sat at an old and worn out table drinking a cup of coffee and stirring a bowl of cake batter. She didn't particularly like doing things the Muggle way, she had been Head Girl at Hogwarts after all, but Lee was in the next room and it would lead to some awkward questions.  
  
Katie enjoyed the coffee though; it had helped to sustain her through these long fifteen years. Very long fifteen years.  
  
Lee had been fine with magic back in school when they had started dating at the end of seventh year, but once they had graduated he went off into the Muggle world, and she had blindly followed him. At first he had been happy to be with her, and they had started planning their life out. But a few days later, when he came back from Diagon Alley for the last time, he had snapped his wand, never telling her why.  
  
Katie had been fine with that back then, she had thought she was in love with him then. They had gotten married at the young age of 18 in a very small and private ceremony. Her parents hadn't approved of it at all, arguing with the two of them while they sat in her childhood house for the last time. But her Muggle father had gone too far, and Lee had angrily stormed out of the house. Katie had once again blindly followed him, leaving her witch mother in tears.  
  
Ever since then Lee had banished all magical things from their tiny flat in Wales. He now believed he had a magic free life. He had even made her break her own wand, although she had substituted one of the Weasley twins' fake wands that she had found somewhere, and now the real wand was tucked securely in a special pocket inside her shirt. Lee had never known, they hadn't hugged since they were 20.  
  
Instead they were forced to deal with the pressures of the Muggle world without the magic they had come to rely on when they were young. Money was a constant issue, as Lee would never allow her to remove wizarding money from her Gringotts vault, which she had slowly filled when she was a kid with her own pocket money. Work was hard to find at first as well, as neither of them had any work history and hardly any skills.  
  
Katie had gone to a Muggle school before Hogwarts, where she had a special talent for charms and spells, but both of those experiences were worth very little. So they had worked two jobs a day, wrapped up in trying to get money and losing what love they had for each other.  
  
"We had been in love, we had been a witch and wizard too" Katie said bitterly, wondering why the cake batter took so long.  
  
Their love had slowly declined and soon disappeared as soon as they were married. Once it was official, it seemed to be too much, a mistake of their youth, and they had realized their stupidity too late. They had stopped kissing each other very early, and hugging was never seen soon after that. They merely lived together, each putting up with the other one.  
  
She desperately wanted to return to the wizarding world, a place she had adored ever since she had first seen her mother entertaining her with bubbles from her wand tip. She missed the spells and charms that could make life interesting or just do a mundane task like bake a cake. She missed Quidditch as well, and she ached nearly every time she swept the floor to jump on the broomstick and fly. So much that she had whimsical dreams every time she swept of soaring through the air and putting the Quaffle through one of the hoops.  
  
She swept the floor quite often now.  
  
But most of all she missed her friends. Angelina Johnson, her best friend during the seven years at Hogwarts, Alicia Spinnet, nearly as close as Angelina, Fred Weasley, Angelina's boyfriend although close to Katie as well, and most of all George Weasley. She had liked him since first year, since the first time he had grinned at her and ran his hand through his tousled hair on the train, but after Lee asked her out he seemed to fade in the background. She hadn't spoken to any of them since the end of seventh year, although she suspected Lee had because after he had snapped his wand he had thrown a large handful of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes candy into the fire.  
  
Katie took another sip of coffee as she added some things to the cake batter, once again marveling at how one task could be so stupid. She wished Lee wasn't there, so she could use her wand to at least mix the ingredients.  
  
Lee, yet another conundrum. He hadn't seemed to miss the magical community at all. He would constantly exclaim, "I love living normally!" while Katie busied herself with sweeping. Oh sure, You-Know-Who had killed his parents in sixth year, but that was no reason to abandon a world so wonderful. Even though he hadn't been pleased with being unemployed for a while, he had managed to get a fairly good job. He was usually seen at the pub down the street when he wasn't at work or home, coming back late and drunk and collapsing on the couch while Katie hid in her room.  
  
She hated what he had become.  
  
Her life was much less pleasurable. She worked at a department store about a mile away, walking every day back and forth, and then came home to make dinner and try to find some sanity before Lee came home. She would sweep, start the fire, sweep, clean up Lee's mess from the night before, sweep, and try to organize things in their small flat. Whenever Lee was home, she was constantly cleaning or making something, so now the windows were always clear and their rooms was always organized.  
  
She hated what she had become.  
  
Katie gulped the rest of the coffee down, and rose automatically to her feet to make more. After filling her cup again she sat back down and consulted the back of the cake mix box for instructions. She poured the batter into the two pans and put them into the oven, her evil enemy.  
  
She yawned widely, and joined Lee in the next room where she sat a few seats away and watched the TV screen blankly. TV, another thing that had taken away their small conversations. Lee didn't look at her, but was staring instead at the blonde newscaster. Katie drank more coffee, her wonderful savior and twisted a strand of her splitting dirty-blonde hair around a finger.  
  
Katie wasn't interested in the stories, so she left the room and went back to the kitchen. She grabbed the broom automatically and started moving in slow circles, her mind literally in the clouds. ************************************************************ Somewhere in Scotland, at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, in Gryffindor Tower, on the sixth floor of the Girl's Dormitories, 17 year old Katie Bell awoke with a startled yell. Sweat was pouring down her face and her pajamas were sticking to her skin as she pushed the blankets off of her legs and sat up panting. Her magnificent dirty-blonde hair was sticking to her face as she tried to forget her nightmare.  
  
She wasn't sure what had triggered the nightmare, possibly it was the emotionally distressing fight with George that night, or it could have been the three burritos that Angelina had insisted she eat as one of the many things she had used to try and forget the fight.  
  
"Bloody hell," she muttered, feeling her stomach lurch as she swung her legs out of bed. She staggered a bit as she got out of bed, and her hand ran across her Head Girl badge before it touched the wall near where her beloved broomstick was leaning.  
  
She heard Angelina mumble something and Alicia roll over but the other two girls, she couldn't remember their names, were for once quiet. She quietly left the dormitory, treading over someone's robes as she opened the door and went down the cold stone steps to the common room.  
  
Katie recognized the person sitting alone in front of the fire, thanks to a rather memorable experience back in first year, but that was another story. She crept up behind him, carefully walking around a few loose sheets of parchment on the carpet.  
  
Katie carefully came right behind him, as he continually slammed a fake wand that had turned into a rubber hammer into the floor. She took hold of both of his shoulders and turned him around quickly. He dropped the hammer in shock as she put her hands forcefully on his neck and kissed him on the mouth.  
  
"I'm sorry about the fight George," Katie said as soon as they pulled away from each other and she had sat down.  
  
"How'd you know I'm George, I could be Fred," George responded regaining his composure and grinning at her. He ran his hand through his tousled flaming red hair in his characteristic gesture.  
  
"Well, Fred was awfully happy the last time I saw him, and you weren't," Katie said and he grinned happily.  
  
"That's okay, I'm sorry too," he said and he pulled her into a tight hug.  
  
"Promise me you'll never let me drink coffee, date Lee, or bake a cake the Muggle way," Katie whispered in his ear.  
  
They pulled apart so that George could study her perfectly serious face. "Why do you want me to do that?"  
  
"Just promise me," she said earnestly.  
  
"Er, okay, I promise." George said and Katie kissed him again.  
  
"Well, what else do you want me to promise?" George said goofily when they were finished.  
  
Katie rolled her eyes, but snuggled up next to him. "I love you George," she sighed.  
  
"I love you too. Want a marshmallow?" George asked her, and she took one of the white and fluffy sweets from his hand and ate it happily.  
  
They sat like that for the rest of the night, sometimes talking, and sometimes not. But they were happy just to be together, eating sweets in blissful silence, both of them sure this would change their future forever. ******** What do you think? Should I do more people? Do you like it? Read and Review! Please! 


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